| Road: | M56 at J7 and J8 (open map) |
| Address: | Millington, Rostherne, Cheshire |
| Signposted from the road? | It will be |
| Services type: | Single site located at a junction |
⚠️ Please note that this service area is not yet open.
Tatton services is a planned Westmorland motorway service area, to be built in the middle of M56/A556 interchange.
The service area will be built in partnership with the Tatton Group, on the south side of the new roundabout at M56 J8; a piece of land which has been surrounded by major roads on all sides since 1974.
Full planning permission was received in October 2023, subject to the Secretary of State for Levelling Up (now Angela Rayner) approving the use of green belt land. She initiated a public inquiry which was held in October 2024.
The updated government policy rules that motorways must have HGV parking every 14 miles; the current 40-mile gap between Lymm and the end of the M66 via Stockport is likely to prove crucial here. National Highways have indicated that there is a need for more HGV parking in this area.
Trivia and Design
As is always the case with Westmorland, Tatton services wants to be different from most other service areas. It will reject big brand names and instead sell locally produced food and craft projects, with a carefully landscaped building and a desire to showcase Cheshire and put Tatton on the map. It will also support local charities.
There will be an amenity building containing a café, farm shop, toilets, and tourist information, as well as a 100 bedroom hotel. They refer to the petrol station as a "fuel barn", on the basis that it is one of the first in the country to be designed to be scaled back as fuel sales become less important. It will have minimal advertising.
These three buildings will be linked by an "outdoor kitchen" garden, and it would all be built around the existing Yarwood Heath Farm building. At least 54 electric vehicle charging points will be included; far more than any motorway service area currently has.
The developer says around 325 jobs will be created. They say the location was chosen for both environmental and practical reasons, as there are no facilities to the east of here. Lymm, a few miles to the west, is not officially supposed to be catering for car drivers.
Planning Issues
A dedicated mini-site has been created to promote the plan, and public consultations began in August 2020. The first public version of the proposal suggested that the developer would close the existing circuitous exit from the M56 eastbound, replacing it with a new slip road which would run directly into the service area. No reason has been given for this being removed, but changing the layout of a motorway can be a very difficult and expensive process for a private company. Other changes included the removal of the new roundabout at the site entrance, with a one-way system being in place instead.
Moto had objected to the proposal, and responded with a proposal to double the number of car parking spaces at Lymm. A number of councillors opposed the plan, arguing that it is a tenuous definition of a motorway service area and that it shouldn't be claiming that there are special circumstances to ignore the green belt. Some businesses have argued that, unlike Gloucester and Tebay, this one would be easily accessed from the local area and therefore more likely to take trade away.
Over 150 objections were received against the proposal, calling it an "unnecessary and damaging development", and arguing that the planned business model of providing high quality food would make it more of a destination than the usual service area. Cheshire East Council ultimately ruled that the road safety issues "clearly outweigh" their concerns about it being inappropriate development, and added that Trafford Council was in agreement.
Alternatives
| Previous: | Next: | |
| Rivington (M61, 30 miles) Birch (M62 east, 25 miles) Woodall (M1 south, 63 miles) | Services on the M56 | Lymm (6 miles) |
| Knutsford (M6 south, 5 miles) | Services on the A556 | end of road |
| none | Westmorland services | none nearby |
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